Finland, as many have observed (not always accurately), does things differently. Indeed, the Nordic countries generally do, as Lauren Gatti, Warwick Mansell and I discussed in our recent book. Finland has also long had a leading reputation for its initial (pre-service) teacher education system and the establishment of ‘university schools’, research-based teacher education, and the integration of school and university components in programme design.
So perhaps it is no surprise that Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture established a Teacher Education Forum in 2016 that is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, 2026. Currently facilitated by the University of Helsinki under the leadership of Professor Auli Toom, the Forum is a model of a Nordic, social corporatist structure – a deliberative space for the co-construction of vision, mission and policy for Finnish teacher education up to 2050. It’s an honour to serve, alongside Professor Lin Goodwin of Boston College, as one of the scientific advisors to the Forum.
A complementary path to formal Ministry policy development, the Forum brings together representatives of all the Finnish higher education institutions, the Ministry, the school employers (the municipalities), the teachers’ union, the student teachers’ union and the school principals’ union. It is quite unique in my experience and the Forum’s tenth anniversary seminar brought together participants from all these sectors at Tampere, just prior to the ECER conference. You can find some of the key policy documents and links at this page. And also a select bibliography for my keynote to the seminar on ‘Innovation in Teacher Education’ at this one.
The Finnish Teacher Education Forum has the potential to do something quite significant that advances teacher education provision at both pre-service and in-service levels as it approaches its 2050 deadline. That timescale, in itself, is indicative of just how different the Finnish approach is.
Viv Ellis 